Imagine you're Rodney, it's two days before your brother's wedding, and you need a baby blue dress shirt to wear to the event. What do you do? You drive 50 minutes to Augusta 'cuz they don't have it at WalMart in Farmington and Kohl's in Augusta is the next closest place. It seemed outlandish, though as I think about it, I've probably driven 50 minutes in Dallas to shop for something. But in Dallas, you can do that without ever leaving the city limits. We drove 35 miles on back country roads 'cuz those are the only kind Maine has. But around here, you don't think much, even at today's gas prices, of hopping in the car to go to Augusta to shop or dine out.
And then, all in the same parking lot, we went to Panera Bread for some dinner. They have free wi-fi at Panera as well as some good food. I can't "rightly say" which was a bigger draw for us: the wi-fi or the food. I had a mango smoothie (not quite a mango margarita but very yummy) and turkey black bean chili. Rodney had soup and salad. It was enough fortification for the energy needed to make the return trip.
About 5 minutes outside of Augusta, I said to Rodney, "Look at the roads! They're dry!" Sure enough, it had stopped raining long enough for the roads to dry. Not to worry. That didn't last long. Very shortly, we were driving in rain again. Rodney's brother's wedding is supposed to be an outdoor wedding. They have a tent set up for the reception, but it looks like the wedding will take place under the tent as well. When we left they were buying up giant sheets of plywood to put down under the tent. Even though the tent has been up for 3 days, it wasn't enough for the ground to dry up. Everything is super saturated and muddy. I hope the rains will let up for at least a little bit Saturday afternoon.
